


The Pursuit of Science

by Fortheoneatopthecity



Category: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Genre: F/M, Fade to black sex, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 02:28:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20922653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fortheoneatopthecity/pseuds/Fortheoneatopthecity
Summary: The Living One, Dr. Rose after a late-night goes off to study her party members in the name of great science, much to their chagrin.





	The Pursuit of Science

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm finally posting a story I wrote about nines years ago at last XD I had no idea there was an Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura tag on Ao3!  
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little story. :D

The pursuit of knowledge was always important to Rose, or Dr. Rose, as she always preferred to be called, knowledge of the sciences, electricity, chemistry, gunsmithing, all the sciences she was proficient in. And her latest interest in gaining knowledge was the study of people of all races and all types, of how they saw the world and their many different practices, no matter how foolish and insignificant they seemed to Dr Rose. So, she went, her trusty pad and pencil in hand, to study the people around her in the greater name of Science. And also she was frankly really, really bored and had nothing better to do.

Dr. Rose’s first anthropological subject was Magnus, completely not a city dwarf, which he constantly protested to everyone around him, who was building a new chair after the old one broke during a drunken brawl, a horribly unintelligent event about which she did not wish to speak of. As he progressed he would keep standing back and admiring his work. This happened every five minutes. Probably the dwarf did not have to worry about dying of old age during the whole process, which, Dr. Rose had calculated, would probably take about ten years for a simple chair with just minor carvings and cushioned seat! Magnus turned to look at Dr. Rose with mild annoyance on his face, “Are you going to keep scribbling and tutting every five minutes while I’m making a replacement chair for the chair_ you_ broke over someone’s head last night?” “That ruffian was trying to have his way with me while I was intoxicated!” “He was only upset that you spilt his pint! Anyway, can you not just stand around writing already? It’s distracting me!” Dr. Rose stomped off in a huff, her genius was wasted here!

Her next anthropological subject was Virgil, the human Panarri monk, one of her companions who had been with her the longest. He was in the library reading some books. Dr Rose leaned forward to look at the titles, some of which included _Dread Armor and its Origins_, _Soot from the Gods, Psychological Treatise of Intolerance_ and, the book he was most engrossed in, _The Nature of Archaeological Practice_. Rose smiled slightly to herself; she was so pleased that Virgil was so well read! And he was quite an intelligent fellow, enough to be around her all the time because he hadn’t exactly chased her with a pitchfork yet all the years they had been together, unlike so many morons she had met in her time. “Can you stop breathing down my neck, it tickles a bit!” Virgil whispered to her before turning his head around to face her. “Sorry, I didn’t realise I was so close!” she said in an apologetic tone, pulling her head back. Virgil eyed the notepad and then her again before speaking in a stern voice, “Now, Rose, what have we talked about? You don’t write anthropological dissertations on me, you’ve already written a twenty page one on me two years ago, what’s there more to add?” “Yes, but my last one was quite inaccurate.” “Oh, the one you wrote about me being some unfortunate country boy who had some intelligence that wouldn’t be appreciated in a farming village despite the numerous times I’ve told you, I’ve never been brought up in a village!” “Yes, it was an arrogant, condescending view of you, without even asking about your life whatsoever! I wish to make it up to you in the best way I can!” Virgil leaned in closer to Dr. Rose, “I know you mean well in your own quirky little way, but I told you I don’t like it and I don’t think this is the best time and place, the librarian’s giving you dirty looks!” “But I have no one else to write an anthropological treatise on, Jayla’s out doing her errands and Science demands it!” “Then go and do one on Sebastian, you haven’t done one on him yet!”

The third anthropological subject was Sebastian, enigmatic technologist gunman hired by Mr. Willoughsby. He was the newest addition to the group which Dr. Rose had really really tried to get to know much better. All her attempts at seduction had been met with a huge smirk from Sebastian, usually followed by such remarks as, “You look like you’re going to jam a needle in my eye!” or “Seduction, don’t you mean dissection?” Despite his off-putting remarks he had proven to be very useful not only in his skill of firearms but also explosives and electricity. Right now he seemed to be repairing some electrical lamps which she thought she remembered as hanging on the walls of the tavern last night. “Virgil and Magnus warned me about this,” he said. “After the first month she starts pulling out her notepad and studying you like some strange oddity. But then again, to you maybe, I am an oddity since you’re quite strange yourself!” Sebastian turned around, a cheeky smile filling his face. Rose did not know whether to smack him or kiss him. Possibly both! “I’m merely just studying your behaviour patterns that possibly helped shape the world we live in today!” “So, you’re playing straight today, eh, Rosie, which is quite strange considering how much you drank last night. Remind me never to let you have any wine again! You’re even more frisky and violent than you normally are!” “And how did those electrical lights get broken?” “Oh, don’t you remember? You broke them with the remains of the chair you broke over that man’s head! Anyway, you offered to repair them, but since you fell asleep last night I had to go and repair these myself.” “Why would you do that for me? There’s no money involved and surely you would have preferred a fight than having to fix these?” “After seeing you fight last night I don’t think I’ll feel like fighting for a week. Besides, I was bored anyway and you weren’t going to do it.” “How do mean, me fighting?” Dr. Rose frowned. “I mean, Rosie, me constantly having to get in the way of you embarrassing yourself, attempting to get into fisticuffs while having the perception of a blind bat!” “How many have you got left to repair?” she said peering over the worktable. “About three more at least, you only broke about six!” Rose sat down next to Sebastian and helped him repair the remaining electrical lamps and they got it done by teatime.

At suppertime Sebastian and Dr. Rose brought the electrical lamps and Magnus brought the chair to the tavern as an apology for the damage caused the previous night. But Rose was still banned from drinking at the tavern.

Later that night they walked back to the inn where they were staying. As Sebastian was just about to go into his room he felt a light tap on the shoulder. He turned to see that it was Dr. Rose. “Oh, Rosie, I would have thought you’d be in your room by now.” “Can I ask you a question, Sebastian?” “I would have thought you could have asked when we were having our supper?” he replied irritably. “Well, I would have, but I was very hungry and…I wanted to ask why you even bothered to repair the electrical lights. I would have done them eventually even though I was a bit incapacitated at the time?” “Ah, Virgil wouldn’t stop nagging me and, like I told you, I was a little bit bored. What, did you think I did it just for you?” Rose turned away, her eyes dulled and her body stiffened. Sebastian leaned towards her and spoke again in a softer voice. “Oh, you did, didn’t you?” He pulled back and a small chuckle escaped from his lips, “Well, maybe I did a little.” In that moment Dr. Rose swung her arms around him and crushed her lips against his. He fell back so hard against the door it sprang open…...

…Sebastian sat up, scratching his head, looking at his bed partner’s body with a small little smirk on his face. “Where’d you get those stitches from?” “Oh, just from those medical experiments from five years ago. They’ve improved my intelligence greatly, don’t you think?” “Did they also help make you a bit of a fruitcake?” Dr. Rose gave him a glare, which was basically saying, _if you don’t just shut up I will really shove a needle in your eyeball!_ “Never mind,” he added quickly, “we’ll just bask in the afterglow.” Her face brightened a bit but then her expression changed as if a light bulb had lit up above her head. “Oh, I’ve just remembered! I should write all this down in the anthropological study I’m doing!” She leaned towards the bedside table, picking up the little notebook and pencil. Sebastian turned and took Dr. Rose in an apparently passion-filled embrace, then suddenly grabbed the notebook out of her hand and tossed it across the room. “But my research-“, she exclaimed. “That can wait for the morning!” he said before kissing her. And for that one moment Science no longer seemed to matter…


End file.
